Montana Outdoors just published an article on two Forest Legacy projects that I’m very proud to have worked on – the Haskill Basin and Trumbull Creek projects, which are both located near Whitefish, MT. Both are projects where varied interests have come together for a common goal. As well stated by the article’s author, Allen Morris Jones,
That’s the concept behind the Forest Legacy Program, a little-known conservation workhorse administered by the U.S. Forest Service. Forest Legacy was created in 1990 in response to widespread development turning the nation’s privately owned forests into “nonforest uses”—housing estates, golf courses, and other commercial sites. The conversion of timberland hurt logging and sawmill businesses, cut off recreational access, fragmented critical wildlife habitat, and degraded streams with sedimentation and leaching septic systems.
These projects are also a great tribute to a late colleague of mine from the Trust for Public Lands, Alex Diekmann, who passed in early February. Alex’s hard work and perseverance on these projects makes them a success.